


Crossing the King

by Punk_Grape



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23837488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punk_Grape/pseuds/Punk_Grape
Summary: Finally confident in herself, Matcha teams up with those who helped her at the start to take on Team Emperor, where things take a stressful turn.
Kudos: 3





	Crossing the King

By some miracle, Matcha had managed to join an actual turf war team, and she loved her teammates to pieces. The three inklings that took her in were the best inklings the octoling had ever come across; they’d changed her tune completely on what she thought about their kind, and she couldn’t be happier. Sure, she knew there were some mean inklings, but there were kind ones, like Goldie, Evo and Snowy. The trio of girls had seen Matcha hiding herself from everyone, and wanted to help her out; even after Matcha explained that she was an octoling, they stuck with her, and even convinced her to stop hiding herself from others. 

So there Matcha stood, face line free, tentacles not tucked away, at their spawn with her sloshing machine in her hands, ready to battle. Before the match, Evo had filled Matcha in on their next opponent, some inkling named Emperor who never lost; she’s been told to not expect to win, since he and his team ruled the battlefield. Even so, Matcha gave it her best from the get go, like she always did; jets of ink flinging from the sloshing machine in her hands. 

The stage was Kelp Dome, and while her teammates had been splatted countless times, the octoling thought she had actually managed to make it to the centre platform on her own. That was far from the truth, as Emperor wanted to see the little octoling up close; his teammates were strictly told to leave her be and just focus on keeping the three others at bay. Golden eyes tracked Matcha’s movements, until she had arrived in the centre. 

Emperor leaned against a railing on one of the upper walkways, watching her closely; she didn’t move or ink like any inkling, her shots seemed almost calculated, and she was in constant use of her octopus form. “You’re certainly entertaining,” he commented with a smirk, and Matcha spun on her heel to look at him. “Show me more.”

For a moment, the octoling was confused; show him more? ‘I’ll show him more,’ she thought as she began to advance on the walkway. Emperor kept his distance, though he had little need to, and kept the smirk on his face. “Not every day you see an octoling in a match, I’m curious,” he began, but trailed off, leaving the girl hanging. Before she had time to react, Emperor shot forward twice, and stopped inches from her. Matcha looked up at his face in awe, she’d never seen such speed from an inkling. 

Emperor laughed as he looked down on her; he’d heard she was still baffled by almost everything inkling. “You’re cute, little octo girl, but you don’t belong here if you can’t adapt.” 

Those words filtered through her ears, she knew she’d come across jerks, but this guy took the cake. Her brain kicked into gear, he’d planned for her to meet him in the middle, hadn’t he, orchestrated the entire battle in his favour within seconds of the beginning. She knew she couldn’t let it bug her, but she also knew that she shouldn’t let it slide; she needed to show she wasn’t weak, and that she was allowed to be there and be herself. 

Pink eyes narrowed at his golden ones, and he chuckled; she had no idea how much she wasn’t menacing in her look. “Shut it, you rich squid bitch,” she said loud and clear, and the entire battle froze; everyone couldn’t believe their ears. Emperor’s smirk faltered as he processed what she had called him, disbelief settling on his face as he stood still. Matcha, still bothered by his presence, quickly flung ink straight at him, point blank; surprised, he rolled backwards, out of her range. 

Her teammates were the first to recover, and made quick work of pushing the rest of the opponents from their spawn, all the while cheering Matcha on. She super jumped back to her mates, and helped reclaim the turf they had lost. For the rest of the battle, Emperor’s teammates could tell he was annoyed, perturbed he had been called out by a short octoling who didn’t belong. 

He could chalk it up to her simply not knowing who he was, but that seemed unlikely the more he watched her teammates, constantly helping her; no, they more than likely told her about his team. No one had ever called him out like that, every inkling he’d ever faced was too scared of him; then again, she wasn’t an inkling, she was an octoling. His normal in control advance into the enemy turf had become aggressive, pushing forward quickly, even missing spots that would normally be covered. The rest of his team struggled to keep pace with him, and eventually let him power ahead; they could tell he was going to pick a fight with the octoling. 

The king of the battlefield wanted to show that shortcake who was in charge, to show her why no one messes with him. Her teammate she was with was easily splatted, and he came face to face with Matcha again. The girl held no fear in her eyes, only a burning distaste for the inkling before her; never would she be under someone’s thumb again. 

However, before either could move to splat the other, the match ended with an overwhelming win for Emperor’s team. Their battle complete, both teams started to clear out, except for the two exchanging glares; they had unfinished business. That business would have to wait, as Evo had noticed Matcha missing, and had gone to pull her away from the potential fight brewing. “Let’s go get something from the Crust Bucket, yeah?” Evo offered, and the octoling finally stopped glaring behind her. 

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Matcha agreed, and the two caught up with Snowy and Goldie.  
~~~  
Back at the square, the four teammates sat around a table, various food or drink in hand as they talked excitedly about the battle; specifically about Matcha crossing Emperor. Snowy was laughing about it, commenting on how he deserved so much worse; the other two were simply grinning. 

“You’re the first person to actually stand up to him like that,” Goldie said. “No one has ever done that before.”

Matcha laughed, “I can’t help it, he was being a jerk.”

Evo nodded. “He’s a grade A bully, that’s for sure. It was fun to see, but I worry.” The three others stopped smiling to look at her funny. “You saw how aggressive he got last second, I just worry what he might do if he catches you alone, Matcha.”

The octoling looked down at her lap, Evo was right, he had become very aggressive very quickly. A smile started to form as she raised her head. “I’m not about to let him bully me, and if he has find out the hard way, that’s okay. I won’t let him or anyone walk over me.” Snowy turned in her seat to give the girl an awkward side hug, which warmed Matcha’s heart. “I’m more than ready for what he has to throw at me.” 

“It’s considered rude to talk about someone behind their back, but I wouldn’t expect you to know that, shortcake.” All four teammates shuddered, how much had he heard? Before anyone could stop her, Matcha shot out of her seat to go face to face with Emperor; her teammates were very worried about her. The smirk from earlier had returned as he watched her, the fire in her eyes ignited once more. 

Matcha was not going to let him get away with anything, she’d struggled for far too long to be free. “You were quite rude yourself,” she countered. 

A huff escaped Emperor, she was infuriating. “I’d rather be a rude inkling than a shortcake of an octoling who will never belong here,” he replied, trying desperately to keep his cool. 

All of a sudden, a loud crack filled the air, silencing the Square. Not a second later, Emperor realized his head was turned to the right, and his left cheek began to sting. No inkling moved as they all watched Matcha, who had slapped Emperor in the face, storm out of the Square; she had had enough of his antics for the day. Her teammates scrambled after her, calling out for her to wait up, and Emperor stood there, in complete shock. 

He had just been slapped. Slapped. By the little octoling who knew next to nothing about inkling culture. How it made his ink boil, a small octoling thinking she could do that and get away with it. A quiet “tch” behind Emperor had the king spinning on his heel; Rider stood there, arms crossed, and the most pissed off look he could make. Something had upset Rider, and Emperor gathered it stemmed from the octoling. 

“Don’t like the newest resident of Inkopolis, Rider?” 

Lime eyes glared at him. “She’s an octoling, she shouldn’t be here,” he hissed, he really did not like her. “She shouldn’t get to walk around, free as a bird, with everyone sitting on her like she’s some fragile flower they must protect. Not after they tried to kill me.” 

That had Emperor’s interest piqued, he motioned for Rider to sit, then followed suit. “Do tell,” he said, if there was something to get against Matcha, he’d take it. 

“I had a few... run ins, with octolings before. They were ruthless, single minded, and only hellbent on killing inklings. I don’t buy her crap, I want her gone.” Emperor hadn’t seen Rider this fired up since their match in the King Cup. “I’ll get rid of her my damn self if I have to.”

“No need for that, I want her gone too. No one calls me a ‘rich squid bitch’, then slaps me, and gets away with it.” The venom in his voice scared Rider, Emperor was normally intimidating, but this was downright scary. “Care to work with me?”

“Yeah, she needs to go.”

**Author's Note:**

> The teammates here are her friends, and are still her friends later on, but Matcha will leave them in favour of going solo for a while, before finding a team with Wave, Pepper and Mint. Even then they’ll still talk and hang out, but she spends most of her time with her team after it forms.


End file.
